Ogwen

Product Description

Ogwen by Iwan Mike Bailey(2010)

• 438 pages of text, maps and photographs

• ISBN 978-0-901601-83-4

A very thorough reassessment of the climbing on the south side of the A5, based around the ever-popular Tryfan and Cwm Idwal areas, including some 140 new routes climbed since the last guide, and many ‘rediscovered’ older climbs. The new routes are at all grades and on both old and new crags. Among the latter are the Eastern Cliffs of Gallt yr Ogof, including Skyline Buttress, the location of some of the hardest climbing in Wales where the E9 Mission Impossible has been the subject of much recent publicity.

Similar in format to the well-received Llanberis guide published last year, with many action photos, all-colour photodiagrams, and photoplans (93 in total, even more than in Llanberis), and bouldering sections by Simon Panton. The guide also has a chronology (a combination of the historical and first ascents sections), which includes short biographical notes on the leading activists over the years. Particular attention has also been given to highlighting some of the easier climbs, which are now often climbed as scrambles.

Although now standard practice in many CC guidebooks such as Llanberis, a graded list of climbs in the Ogwen area has been included for the first time.

The guide now also includes the climbing on the north side of the A4086 between Pen y Gwyrd and Capel Curig, and for the first time the excellent climbing on the Creigiau Llynnau Mymbyr (the Ricks and Racks) is described in detail, although these crags have been climbed on for years by Plas y Brenin parties.

Images

The new Ogwen guide, which mirrors the style of the preceding Llanberis guide, is another superb addition to the Climbers’ Club’s library of guidebooks. Full of colour photographs, with clear and accurate lines drawn on to display route information, the book offers what is undoubtedly the highest quality and most comprehensive information for the area. Since its previous incarnation, the area has received enormous attention and so new crags and routes abound, all described with the customary clear and concise information. The book also contains descriptions of the area’s bounldering problems, which are also accompanied by photographic topos. And if that were not enough, those who do not consider themselves ‘technical’ rock climbers will find something here too, for the book also contains a plethora of scrambling routes, many of which have not been publicised in this form before. To bring this brief review to a quick conclusion, this is indeed a superb book and a vast improvement on the Climbers’ Club’s previous generation of books. If you’re looking to comprehensively explore the area, then this is absolutely the book for you.